Grown slowly, like everything good in a garden

Foxglove & Fern began in 2014 with a borrowed van, a secondhand drawing board and one very overgrown rectory garden near Bishop’s Castle. We’ve stayed deliberately small ever since: a studio of three, taking on a handful of gardens each year and giving each one our full attention.

Where we work

Our gardens sit across Shropshire and the Welsh Marches — walled town plots in Ludlow and Shrewsbury, farmhouse gardens under the Long Mynd, and the odd courtyard that just needs a kinder plan. We rarely travel further; a garden is easier to love when you can drop in on it.

Walking a new site below the Long Mynd — every design starts on foot.

How we think

We believe the best gardens are three-quarters plants and one-quarter patience. Hard landscaping should do its job quietly; planting should do the talking. And a design isn’t finished when the last slab is laid — it’s finished about five Junes later, which is why we like to stay in touch.

What we hold to

• Place first. The landscape sets the palette; we follow its lead.
• Plants over product. Generous planting, modest hardscape, no gimmicks.
• Local hands. Shropshire growers, wallers and joiners wherever possible.
• Long views. We design for year five, not just the photograph at handover.